Dec. 17In a move cheered by environmentalists, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday tapped Alan Lloyd, chairman of the state's Air Resources Board, to be secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Lloyd, 62, is a Democrat who has gained widespread attention for putting in place the nation's first rules requiring automakers to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, along with expanding efforts to reduce diesel soot and to create a state network of hydrogen fuel stations.

He replaces Terry Tamminen, a former Santa Monica environmentalist whom Schwarzenegger promoted last month from EPA secretary to be cabinet secretary.

As leader of the California EPA, a job paying $131,412 a year, Lloyd will oversee six agencies whose budgets this year total $980 million. The agencies enforce most of the state's rules governing smog, water pollution, pesticides and hazardous wastes.

Lloyd was first appointed to chair the air board in 1999 by former Gov. Gray Davis. A Sacramento resident, he earned a Ph.D in gas kinetics and a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Environmental and public health groups lobbied behind the scenes for Lloyd's selection, over former State Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, who was also interested.

"We think this is a terrific appointment," said Paul Knepprath, vice president of the American Lung Association of California. "Alan has led California in enacting some of the toughest regulations to clean up the state's air."

Before joining the air board, Lloyd was executive director of the Energy and Environmental Center at the Desert Research Institute. From 1988 to 1995, he was chief scientist at the South Coast Air Quality Management District, following 18 years as a manager with Environmental Research and Technology.

Over the past 40 years, Califoria became the first state to ban leaded gasoline, to require catalytic converters on cars and to mandate smog checks. But it also has had setbacks, such as the state's ill-fated attempt in the 1990s to force automakers to make quotas of electric cars, a rule Lloyd finally killed when the technology didn't deliver.

Last month, nine automakers sued California to block the state's greenhouse rules, which require a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions from cars by 2016.

"When you look at what agencies have really gone off the deep end in terms of spending huge sums of money chasing down unimaginably small, purely hypothetical, risk, the California Air Resources Board and Alan Lloyd typify this," said Sam Kazman, chief counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington, D.C.

Jeanne Cain, a senior vice president with the California Chamber of Commerce, described Lloyd as fair. When the state set new emission rules for diesel engines, Lloyd worked with industry, listening to concerns, she said.

"He understands that being pro-business doesn't mean being anti-environment," she said. "You can be for both, which is what most Californians want."

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